The
real W 22 is seen in this 11 June 2000 photograph stored in the
Pichi Richi Railway workshops at
Quorn.

It
has been

stripped of its cowling and boiler clothing, and
significant rusting is evident on the boiler barrel.

Comparison with the slide views below shows the
faded livery and former position of the "Justin Hancock" nameplate on the
cabside.

This locomotive was built by Beyer Peacock &
Co (builder's number 7418 of 1951) as the first of
four Silverton Tramway's W-class engines. These
locomotives built to the West Australian Government Railway's W-class
4-8-2 design but with minor differences, the most visible being the decorative
cowling along the boiler top which originated from the original WAGR
specification by the Chief Mechanical Engineer, Frederick Mills. This distinctive boiler cowling also featured
on his S-class 4-8-2 and ASG Garratt designs. Adrian Gunzberg's fine book
"A history of WAGR Steam Locomotives" gives an excellent account of how
the WAGR W-class design evolved from the original Mills design to the
final Beyer-Peacock design following Mill's death in 1949; the
survival of the Mills boiler cowling on the four Silverton locomotives is
an interesting quirk of history. The builder's number sequence for the 4
Silverton locomotives (7418/9, 7553/54) suggests they were built concurrently
with WAGR W-class, the first two being sequenced after the initial order for 40 units
(b/n 7378-7417) but before the WAGR order for a further 20
units (b/n 7453-7472), and the final two after the second WAGR batch.

An interesting feature of the
design was the sloping cab front which was parallel with the boiler /
firebox back plate; this minimised the area of boiler that was within the
cab. Anyone who has been in the cab of a steam locomotive during the
heat of the Australian summer would appreciate this feature!

W 22 was named 'Justin Hancock' in Silverton
Tramway service. The four Silverton W-class
locomotives wore an attractive lined green livery as they shuttled back
and forth over the 56km Silverton Tramway main line from Broken Hill to the South
Australian Railways interchange at Cockburn.

Following withdrawal from Silverton Tramway
service, W 22 was placed on static display in the grounds of the Puffing Billy Museum, Menzies Creek, Victoria.
Photos show that it arrived at Menzies Creek around 1969 and had been
freshly painted, however the wet Victorian climate eventually took its
toll.

After many years of static display
at Menzies Creek, W 22 was transferred to the
Pichi Richi Railway,
South Australia for restoration
to operation. Upon detailed
inspection at the Pichi Richi Railway's workshops it was discovered to be in poor condition; if I
remember correctly some tyres were rotten after standing in mud and leaf
mulch. The
Pichi Richi Railway wanted to honour their commitment to restore W 22 to operation, so WAGR
sister W 916 was instead overhauled and renumbered as Silverton W 22,
apparently using some original W 22 parts (probably including the skyline cowling)
and with transfer of identifying number and name plates.

Your webmaster enjoyed a trip behind W 916
(restored as W 22) on the Pichi Richi Railway in 2007 on the Afghan Express from Port
Augusta to Quorn and return. The locomotive performed absolutely faultlessly;
in fact my only reservation was that the locomotive was so powerful and
capable that it hauled its 5-car consist over the steep and tightly-curved
Pichi Richi Pass with - seemingly - barely any effort at all!